Pre-BaselWorld 2016: Girard-Perregaux

A surprising image overhaul kicks off Girard-Perregaux’s BaselWorld foray. In what is surely a gamble, the best-selling 1966 collection (launched in the noughties, but named so for its pared-down design inspired by the ‘60s) gets dolled up in an attempt to get reinvigorated.

The skeletonised movement, featuring a chic shade of matt grey, thanks to a galvanic process, sets the tone. Girard-Perregaux’s classic hand-wound GP1800 movement boasts great architecture that itself lends well to the hollowed out treatment. The skeletal structure and tone also brilliantly sets off the pink gold hands and case, purple jewels and polished wheels. Favouring architectural form over intricate decoration, this modern skeleton watch is a beauty to behold. That said, the watch runs the risk of looking like the odd one out against a repertoire of sober, decidedly unadorned 1960s-style watches that made the collection such a hit in the first place.

Alvin promises not to be a douche when talking about watches. He may have scoured the Basel and Geneva watch fairs for the past 15 years, and played an instrumental role to the growth of Singapore's pioneering horological and men's lifestyle publications, but the intrepid scribe seeks to learn something new with each story he writes.